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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to